I would like to start with a little bit of trivia. Take a guess how long it has been since the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted a new search engine patent?  Hint: It has been longer than you might think given how absolutely vital SEARCH is to everyone – and not just Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, to name a few.

Time is up. You can impress your friends with the answer, which is five years. 

You read correctly. It has been five years since the last patent, until just recently when Simplexo, via its SearchYourCloud operations, announced it had been granted a patent, entitled “Improved Search Engine - offers unprecedented search capabilities for users by leveraging Boolean and semantic search technologies to deliver enhanced search results.”  This is interesting stuff. The reason is the deliverable. Users can search across clouds and within content and document details to obtain relevant and accurate search results with greatly enhanced searching capabilities. 


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“Our search is highly intuitive and delivers filtered, contextual results rather than merely just delivering the results based on the number of word occurrences,” stated Simon Bain, CTO of Simplexo. “Results are based on both the keywords and overall relevance to the query.  The technology allows for word order to be changed around and reversed for enhanced search. For example, searching for ‘summer vacation memos’ would search for the exact phrase, the words in any order, related terms such as travel, holiday and messages within documents.”

The wow factors

Below are the benefits that are obtainable as a result of the technology used in Simplexo’s SearchYourCloud. They include: 

• Cross-Cloud Search: This improves the native search technology in back-office applications such as Exchange and cloud services, including Box.net, Dropbox and Google Drive, delivering secure and fast cross-cloud search and providing users access to multiple cloud service accounts in one place.
• Optimized for Mobile: A simple search phrase is used, rather than needing to input multiple phrases, delivering a more relevant result set.  Mobile users can more easily navigate a search using the limited display size. Federating across multiple services also enables mobile users to manage their time and screen more effectively. With our unique security added to the search, mobile users can now find and access their information in complete privacy knowing that it is secured, both in transit and at rest.
• Better Boolean Search: The patented technology enables a Boolean search to be placed on one or more sources with the input of a simple search term, word or phrase. The search term is converted into a complex, “advanced” search query and then relayed to one or more data sources. Databases can be searched by mixed fields, with each word being targeted separately.
• Data De-duplication: Prior to being displayed to the user, SearchYourCloud’s search results are de-duplicated.  Redundant results are eliminated, including multiple versions of the same document to deliver only the newest and most relevant results.

Bain added, “The Improved Search Engine patent confirms SearchYourCloud as a leader in the search and application space and puts users in control of their data.  SearchYourCloud’s technology enhances users’ productivity and lets users find and secure their data in one, fast step. Unlike other search engines our applications can find emails with a ‘to’ and ‘from’ name, and subject or content body without the user having to type in too many different search boxes. It can also find content from more than one source effortlessly and de-duplicate the results.”

SearchYourCloud, case in point, develops software that can be embedded, integrated and implemented by third parties. These include carriers/mobile operators, systems integrators and software providers, and in-house IT development/integration experts. The SearchYourCloud technology can be used as a front-end access method for existing private or public cloud services, or as the backbone to deliver new services. What the patent does is make searching a lot easier and, by eliminating duplicates before presentation to the user, also much friendlier. 

The old axiom about time being money has never been more true, and there are few things more frustrating than being slowed down when doing a search either because of presentation of too much non-relevant content, or the inability of the search engine to do a search that is comprehensive in terms of both reach and the ability to provide relevancy based on enhanced capabilities. In fact, not only does this patent cover that, but also in the execution of it the focus has been on ease-of-use. 

This is breakthrough stuff implemented with a variety of Simplexo partners. Five years was a long time to wait before this patent was granted. It is likely to take a lot less time for its functionality to gain traction, and may serve as an impetus for others in the field to do something more than tweak algorithms based on monetization desires. Whether part of a “freemium” service or a premium one, the bar has been raised on what we should expect/demand of our search engines.